Publications

The National Endowment for the Arts has released the following Big Read-related
publications. Click on the icon to visit to access a PDF of the report. You will need the free
Adobe Acrobat Reader to view these files.

Reading on the Rise: A New Chapter in American Literacy
Reading on the Rise documents a definitive increase in rates and numbers of American
adults who read literature. This new growth reverses two decades of downward trends
cited previously in NEA reports such as Reading at Risk and To Read or Not To Read.
Reading on the Rise is based on early results from the 2008 Survey of Public
Participation in the Arts.
Read more...

Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America
This report presents the results from the literature segment of the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts,
conducted by the Census Bureau in 2002 at the NEA's request. The survey asked more than 17,000 adults if during
the previous 12 months they had read any novels, short stories, poetry or plays in their leisure time,
that were not required for work or school.
Read more...

To Read or Not To Read: A Question of National Consequence
This report is a comprehensive analysis of reading patterns of children, teenagers,
and adults in the United States. Assembling data on reading trends from more than 40 sources,
this compendium expands the investigation of the NEA's landmark 2004 report,
Reading at Risk, and exposes trends that may have severe consequences for American society.
Read more...